America Must Abandon Alliances with the Sunni Gulf States

We howl for war with Iran when all terrorist acts on the west are perpetrated by Sunni Muslims; our “allies”.

As American’s flip on their televisions they often see news headlines with “Bomb Explodes”, “Van runs down multiple people on London bridge”, and they reflexively think “Another radical Islamist attack”. While this may seem a form of prejudice, there is a high statistical likelihood that their gut reaction was spot on. As Islamic terrorism continues its steady rise in the west, gut reactions have become increasingly correct. The problem with the gut reaction though is that it is topical. Iran, the Islamic nation which the west loves to hate, has absolutely nothing to do with the terrorist attacks experienced in the west. They are a Shiite Islamic nation. The unending string of attacks directly striking the west are without exception Sunni, and on paper, they are our “allies”.

Of course, Shite’s are not blameless; in fact, their hands are just as bloody as those of the Sunni. Hezbollah, which is funded and controlled by the Iranian government is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths throughout the Middle East, South Asia, and Northern Africa and in a couple of isolated incidents, abroad.

The Shite’s in Iran through their terrorist arm Hezbollah act mostly on geopolitical interests with the veneer of Islam. They use terrorism to achieve geopolitical goals. Once achieved, they back off. Such was the case during the Iraq-Iran War. Shite radicals performed a series of terrorist attacks on France from 1984-1987 to get them to end their support of Iraq. In 1987, their efforts paid off as the French dropped their support of Iraq. They went on to release $1 million in embargoed military supplies to Iran. Iran, through their terrorist arm, Hezbollah had achieved their goal and ceased attacking France.

Beginning in 1996, Iran had narrowed the scope of its geopolitical interests. So too, their terrorism has been relegated primarily to Middle Eastern countries and North Africa. While they are constantly active in a geopolitical struggle with Saudi Arabia and aligned countries, they do not attack western nations on their own soil.

Sunni terrorism outside of Afghanistan came to being after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. The victorious mujahidin, or one engaged in holy war, set its sights on regional objectives. With their terrorist practices recently refined in their fighting with the Soviets and equipped with weaponry given to them by the United States, they began to export their form of terrorism around the region. Targeting Muslim nations which were too close to the west (Especially the US), corrupt leaders or insufficiently hardline Sunni domestic policy.

Between 1990 and 1995 they began their terrorist attacks on Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan and much more. They, like the Shite Hezbollah, were interested in their geopolitical objectives. It had not yet become an exporter of terrorism to the west at this point. Although it was soon to come.

Their efforts were largely a failure. Little was accomplished in the way of supplanting the ruling classes in the nations that they had terrorized. With their overall failure, a kind of terrorist soul searching occurred. They began flocking to Afghanistan as they could recruit, train and plot without molestation.

In comes Usama bin Laden.

In 1996, Usama bin Laden moved to Afghanistan. He built up Al Qaeda of which he founded and consolidated other previously non-aligned terrorists under his umbrella. Bin Laden’s ideas of Pan-Islamism came to the foreground. He supported the idea of an Islamic Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Iran as one nation with no borders between them. Ruled by a Caliph and observing strict Shia Law, perhaps Saudi Wahhabism.

In 1998, bin Laden issued the fatwa heard around the world; he said, “The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it” He went on “We -- with Allah's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it.”

This fatwa began the endless string of Sunni terrorism in Europe and the United States. The policy goals shifted from geopolitical goals to a philosophy of gorging on blood anywhere it could be had seemingly with no goal but to terrorize. The Barcelona van attack, the London Bridge van attack, the Ariana Grande concert attack, the Boston Marathon attack, The World Trade Center attack, the Charlie Hebdo attack, the San Bernardino shooters, the Orlando gay bar shooting, the list is endless and they all have one thing in common. They are radical Sunni attacks on Europe and the United States.

Some may wonder, what this has to do with the Sunni Gulf kingdoms, outside of a shared religion of which there are 1.2 billion members. The answer; oil money. It is common knowledge in Afghanistan that coalition forces aren’t able to keep a lid on the country is because of money from the Gulf States. When coalition forces push hard enough, terrorist elements simply slip into Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States where they frequently participate in commerce until the heat dies down. They are free to raise money for their jihad unmolested and then return back to Afghanistan to renew their fight.

Saudi Arabia as a state policy practices Wahhabism. It is a hard-liner branch of mainstream Sunni Salafism which many describe as fundamentalist, austere, puritanical and ultra-conservative. Shia and Sunni’s worldwide generally view Wahhabism as an aberration. Many criticize it as being the inspiration or the philosophical foundation of ISIS. The US State Department estimates that the Saudi monarchy has spent $10 billion, given to charities to supplant mainstream Sunnism with Wahhabism. European Union intelligence experts estimate that 15-20% of that figure goes directly to Al Qaeda and affiliates via sham charities.

If that isn’t troubling enough, there are over 7,000 mosques in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany alone and rapidly growing. There is not a single Christian church in Saudi Arabia. The money to build these mosques is also coming from Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom already finances thousands of schools from the Philippines to Morocco. It is incredibly naïve to believe that these schools are not teaching the Wahhabism of their patrons. A whole generation of Wahhabi indoctrinated youth in the heart of Europe’s greatest capitals is a recipe for disaster. A terrorist attack is minor compared to what will likely come of this in the future.

Sunni jihadis primarily do their recruiting through the internet, charities, and mosques. While the west has advanced mechanisms for monitoring the internet, thousands of Sunni charities and mosques springing up throughout Europe and the United States is making the task of tracking radical recruitment impossible. The Saudi monarchy is running a smoke screen for terrorist recruitment. 

There is credible evidence that the Saudi government knew about the September 11^th attacks and they likely still know about recurring terrorism on the west today. Despite all of the lip-service they pay to the US, they are the provable philosophical basis for radical Sunni attacks, and still to this day, through their illegally funneled money, the primary bankrollers of jihad.

American’s have some soul searching to do. Perhaps the US should withdraw completely from alliances with all Middle Eastern nations and instead pursue strictly economic agreements. Let this ugly proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia play out absent American blood and treasure. The best option is no military involvement whatsoever, but if we had to choose a side, the Sunni Gulf States should be the very last option. Their Wahhabism has poisoned Islam and they have sown seeds across Europe which will lead to mass misery and the eventual destruction of many of their all-to-willing hosts.